Do any of you across this great land swim at a YMCA indoor facility that does NOT automatically close the pool whenever there are thunderstorms in the area?
Two of our three practices this week have been cancelled because of thunderstorms.
On another thread, someone posted how the total number of deaths from indoor pool electrocutions during thunderstorms--in the history of the world--total precisely zero.
I have made this argument endlessly to our Y authorities, all to no avail. Two university pools--Pitt and CMU--do NOT close their indoor pools because of lightning and, in fact, find the concept chortlesome.
If you do swim at a Y pool with a more enlightened policy, can you send word as to how you got your aquatic staff to override the (misguided) national YMCA policy about this?
Signed--
Slowly desiccating in Sewickley, Pa
Our Y will close the pool until they get the all clear, meaning that if there has been no thunder/lightning in the 30 minutes preceding the time that they last hear/see it.
I have never been in the water while this has happened at our local Y. The only time I have had to deal with a storm was one evening when there were storms there was no masters practice (no coaches) but the pool was still open and we were able to swim anyways.
I believe that most pools have some sort of lightning/storm policy.
Well, just went to the Y for an easy swim. I made it through 200 yards and TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! EVERYBODY OUT!
Apparently, the lifeguard sensed that somewhere on Planet Earth, lightning was striking!
Someone asked how long we needed to stay out.
"Thirty minutes till there are no more rumbles of thunder," she said.
It was 3:30. The Y closes at 4--"summer hours."
Meanwhile, they are spending a small fortune expanding the parking lot so people won't have to walk 150 yards from the old parking lot when they come to exercise, assuming, that is, they make it before "summer hours" forces the facility closed.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr!
Y's are ridiculous about closures. You might as well try to convince a rock about this for all the good it will do you to talk to the aquatics director.
The Monon Center here is Carmel, Indiana has the same stupid indoor thunder policy. I thought they were joking the first time I had to leave the indoor pool
for thunder. I can understand this policy for outdoor pools but indoor it seems crazy! :bitching:
I wonder if anybody at USMS could intercede on behalf of us Y swimmers? I think it is, indeed, a national policy, but it seems to me a misguided one. I think the harm done by keeping people from a healthy form of physical activity is much greater than some theoretical risk that some misguided Y committee decided to implement to lower insurance or what have you.
Same 30 minute rule at the Ys I've been to in Michigan - I don't know it might be their national policy. Does insurance have anything to do with it?
This is one of the main reasons I finally quit that place (along with noodlers/lane limitations, hot water, and disgusting lockerooms). I look outside today and it's been overcast all day, probably could hear a hint of thunder in the distance if you listened close enough. There wouldn't be any sense going to the Y pool right now.
I just completed Red Cross Lifeguard certification, and closing an indoor pool in lightning is one of their recommendations. My Coach, who taught the class, pretty much admitted that it's not a problem, but that's because he is confident in his pool. (Also, our pool has no windows, so who even knows?) It is technically possible that outside lightning can electrify an indoor pool, if Mars and Venus are aligned and the lightning hits at exactly 36 degrees to the ground... But extremely unlikely, especially if the pool is newer construction.
From the National Lightning Safety Institute:
Indoor Pool report
More indoor pool
YMCA Guidelines
if your YMCA insists these are rules, feel free to get all Captain Jack Sparrow on them - the lightning code of action are more like guidelines, NOT rules, and the pdf specifically says that.
if your pool/building is not grounded properly, i don't think the guidelines are a bad policy. personally, i get very nervous swimming during a thunderstorm, but moreso because when the UMD tornado came through campus Sept 2001, we all watched it come within 50m of the pool.
in practice, i think people can afford to loosen up a bit. anyone can look at radar and figure out where the stormiest parts of a storm will pass. i think it mentioned it in one of these links, but lightning follows the path of least resistance, and while it is unpredictable, the likelihood of a bolt traveling several lateral miles away from its source - and with so many other juicy places to hit in between - has to be really slim. if the bad parts are coming right for you, sure, evacuate - but if you're on the outskirts of the meat of the storm, perhaps you can consider letting swimmers continue.
